Anonymous - 2-17-2005 at 10:30 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20050217-9999-1n17...
Chances for better U.S. ties said lost
By Sandra Dibble
February 17, 2005
TIJUANA ? A key appointee on northern border affairs for President Vicente Fox has resigned after eight months on the job, saying the administration
has overlooked important opportunities for improving U.S.-Mexican relations.
Arturo Gonz?lez Cruz said in a letter sent Monday to the Mexican president that he had become disillusioned while serving under the country's foreign
minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez.
The Fox administration has shown "little interest in realizing agreements that affect not only Mexicans living on the border, but also those living in
the rest of Mexico, and even those who unfortunately emigrate due to the lack of adequate economic conditions in our country," Gonz?lez wrote.
He charged that Derbez has been distracted from his job because of his efforts to become head of the Organization of American States; the Fox
administration has proposed Derbez for the position.
As a result, "it is the subsecretaries who are making many of the decisions affecting Mexico's foreign relations. . . . Mexico demands and requires
that its government have a full-time secretary; it's the only way that we can move forward on matters of priority for our homeland," Gonz?lez wrote.
The release last month of a letter sent to Derbez by U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza complaining of crime on the northern border "is a reflection that
relations have deteriorated a bit," Gonz?lez said in an interview yesterday. "To me it's obvious that if Tony Garza sent out this letter to the media,
it's because the channels of communication are not adequate."
Requests for response from Mexico's Foreign Ministry went unanswered yesterday. Derbez was in the northern industrial city of Monterrey, calling for
greater economic integration with Asia. On Tuesday, he met with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Washington.
Gonz?lez's departure marks the second resignation of a northern border appointee since Fox became president in December 2000.
Ernesto Ruffo Appel cited health reasons and lack of understanding from his Mexico City colleagues when he left his job as commissioner for the
northern border in September 2003. "They listen to us, but they don't understand us," he said at the time.
The commission shut down with the departure of Ruffo, a former Baja California governor. But a similar post was created in June 2004 with Gonz?lez's
appointment as the Mexican Foreign Ministry's liaison for the northern border.
The job would entail cutting through bureaucratic red tape on both sides of the border and representing the Fox administration on crucial regional
concerns such as clogged border crossings, Derbez said at the time.
A prominent Tijuana businessman with ties to Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, Gonz?lez served as president of Mexico's National Federation
of Chambers of Commerce. He was mentioned as a potential candidate for the Tijuana mayor's job, a post eventually won by the current mayor, Jorge Hank
Rhon.
Gonz?lez said he had tried to meet with Derbez but received no response.